A leading Swedish steelmaker will make the first fossil fuel-free steel plant powered by hydrogen. The company called SSAB confirmed earlier this week that plans are in place to overhaul the company's practices and technology.

This new project called HYBRIT will use hydrogen produced with electricity from fossil-free Swedish resources. The resulting emissions are water.

According to Reuters' reports, the company's global output reached upwards of 8.8 million tonnes last year. The SSAB said in a company statement that the new system could remove the greenhouse gases that made up 10 percent of Sweden's total carbon dioxide emissions and 7 percent of Finland's emissions, according to SSAB spokeswoman Viktoria Karsberg.

“After building the pilot plant we will run tests between 2020 and 2024 and then we can scale up to a demonstration plant. By 2035 we should have a ready solution for all production,” she told Reuters.

Hydrogen from electrolysis to run a smelting furnace seems absolutely bonkers...electric arc furnaces maybe less so.

Of course floating red dirt (iron ore) from Australia to Sweden doesn't make much sense either.

Bonkers yes from a conservation perspective but from a political and social engineering perspective, they're just doing what everyone else is, trying to get government subsidies to pay for more of their power (or fuel) bill than they'd have to pay for themselves otherwise. Quote:

Quote:

"To be able to carry out this project, however, significant national contributions are still required from the state, research institutions and universities," the project's press statement said.

Why not a more efficient means? Wouldn't qualify for the *free* money, lol.

Hydrogen from electrolysis to run a smelting furnace seems absolutely bonkers...electric arc furnaces maybe less so.

+1. Only way to be fossil fuel free is to have traceable nuke/renewables to electrolysis, and that still has a footprint. If they are caught doing SMR or something, then its as idiotic as characterizing 12MPG SUVs as "partial zero" emissions vehicles.

Electric arc furnaces might be better, but still need the traceability or else are just a joke too.

Bonkers yes from a conservation perspective but from a political and social engineering perspective, they're just doing what everyone else is, trying to get government subsidies to pay for more of their power (or fuel) bill than they'd have to pay for themselves otherwise. Quote:

Quote:

"To be able to carry out this project, however, significant national contributions are still required from the state, research institutions and universities," the project's press statement said.

Why not a more efficient means? Wouldn't qualify for the *free* money, lol.

USA industries seem adept at gouging money from the government in the form of tax breaks and bailouts.I shouldn't single out the USA, it is far from alone in this respect.

A leading Swedish steelmaker will make the first fossil fuel-free steel plant powered by hydrogen. The company called SSAB confirmed earlier this week that plans are in place to overhaul the company's practices and technology.

This new project called HYBRIT will use hydrogen produced with electricity from fossil-free Swedish resources. The resulting emissions are water.

According to Reuters' reports, the company's global output reached upwards of 8.8 million tonnes last year. The SSAB said in a company statement that the new system could remove the greenhouse gases that made up 10 percent of Sweden's total carbon dioxide emissions and 7 percent of Finland's emissions, according to SSAB spokeswoman Viktoria Karsberg.

“After building the pilot plant we will run tests between 2020 and 2024 and then we can scale up to a demonstration plant. By 2035 we should have a ready solution for all production,” she told Reuters.

Hydrogen from electrolysis to run a smelting furnace seems absolutely bonkers...electric arc furnaces maybe less so.

Of course floating red dirt (iron ore) from Australia to Sweden doesn't make much sense either.

I think Sweden at one time had an abundance of hydro electric power . Read that is why they had a heavy water plant .

Read about the British attempts to deny the Germans access to the heavy water .

I know electric arc furnaces use mostly scrap steel to melt and re-purpose . Smelting iron ore is a different can of worms . Traditionally coke ( processed coal ) was used . Before that charcoal ( until England was in danger of running out of trees ) .

As WyrTwister said, I don't know how they are going to use hydrogen to smelt iron ore. I'm not familiar with how that will make steel. It takes more than getting something hot to change iron ore into steel.

The oxygen needs to be removed from the ore by reacting it with an element that has greater affinity for oxygen than iron does. Traditionally, carbon is used. It appears that the hydrogen will also work.

Anyways, IMO the "free" hydroelectric power can be used for data center much more efficiently than to make H2 and then blast furnace for steel. They could have build hundreds of data center and tax the electricity to provide social benefits for the local residences.

Hydrogen could reduce iron ore. I'd have to dig back in my schooling to verify this. It's not popularly done on a large scale.

Hydrogen embrittlement is not a concern. Any hydrogen in the steel would be long gone with subsequent processing at the mill. Additionally, hydrogen embrittlement is typically only a concern for quench-and-tempered product with high hardness, when hydrogen has been introduced after hardening.

I'd expect more from the Swedes than just shuffling the green-washing veneer around to obscure inefficient processes for PR purposes. How else could they truthfully ring-out appealing claims like "b-b-ut the only emission is nice, clean, clear water! You like water, right? Water's nice and safe isn't it?"

Originally Posted By: Dave9

Why not a more efficient means? Wouldn't qualify for the *free* money, lol.

No kidding. Makes a person wonder who the economic forces behind these black-hole subsidies for bogus technical solutions, anyway?

Scambling for solutions is a hopelessly futile endeavour and potentially dangerous, without first coming to a solid, personal understanding of the problem. Beware riding the ideological hobby horse.